Management vs. Leadership
By way of a recap, I am impelled through the grace of the Lord to bring to the front discussions we have had at the elder level for a while. Essentially, how do we model biblical leadership to inspire the people God has gifted under our care to follow suit?
I'm only going to give a brief treatment of what has been an evolving discussion over a large span of time. Jesus reserved His strongest condemnation for the hypocritical rulers of the people in His time. Those self-labeled "leaders" were actually managers and focused on the wrong goal even in that pillar. You see, a worldly manager is someone who looks at a situation, organizes it into smaller parts and tasks, and then assigns others to complete those identified tasks based on what they are told. Breaking this down, you see that a worldly manager is a slave to the productivity of the moment, wrapped up in task completion as more important than people development.
By contrast, a biblical leader sees a situation and is drawn through the Spirit to identify how to serve the people who are struggling or succeeding in accomplishing whatever is in front of them recognizing that our chief end in life is to bring glory to God and to worship Him forever. Breaking this down, you have biblical leaders anchored in their passion for learning, loving, and living the Word of God. They must be grounded and elevated in prayer. And by covenant with the Lord, they incur a stricter responsibility for the development of the sheep in their flock simply because the grace of God wanted it that way.
Challenge
The view behind the curtain is this: How can we move past the once-a-week service time, the comfort of normalcy without ripples, and the paper airplane throwing evangelism and really model how to biblically lead both believers and other pre-Christians to exposure at the feet of Jesus?
Your elders walk confident on the path the Lord has paved for us. So, I ask you this...when you take a minute and think about it, are you a worldly manager or a biblical leader? If you think you're a manager and want to see how God has a different plan for you then talk to an elder. If you think you're a leader, then engage with the elders to be an active doer in changing lives. And if you don't know, then let the Lord in prayer prep your soul and let the elders help in that discernment of not just what's good for now, but what's BEST for God's eternity!
You are precious and you are loved as a saved redeemed believer in Christ! Jesus is the standard for biblical leadership. We are His Imago Dei! Let your identity drive your actions today!
For Him,
Jeff
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